misosoupcup's reviews
478 reviews

i'm definetly too old for this book now but i still enjoyed this book nonetheless! very solid YA debut featuring a gay trans latino protagonist. the two conflicts involving the supernatural were alright to me, but what was the meat of this book for me was the other main conflict of familial transphobia that yadriel experienced from family members who love him but are struggling to fully accept his gender. 

i kind of knew who the antagonist/villian was but i was really hoping it wouldn't be true. i was really hoping that the one person in yadriel's family who respected and accepted him wouln't be the main villian but oh well.

Hmmm. tbh not sure what i want to rate this...
four parts/four phases spanning ten years. the first part was my favorite. i fet some of the themes to be repetitive, but maybe i don't like this book because of its suprisingly earnest depiction of a sad loser gay (aka me in about 10 years)...

its not that i don't want to finish it, its just that currently its not for school saurrrr

Since its her most recent novel, i heard this one was one of her best. The pretty consistent shoe-horned "im a physiscist" type of jokes were a bit annoying, but the stakes, academia politics, and emotional core are really well established and concluded. Strong romance novel. Elsie and jack are also very sweet.

oh yeah i understand what people mean when they say book two is the weakest...

think this is probably my fifth time re-reading. first time reading as an audio book! and a lovely one too! full cast of voice actors and phillip pullman himself narrating!

lyra is such a strong fierce and young protagonist. fell in love with her, pantalaimon and everyone else all over again! especially bittersweet after watching the hbo series and coming back to HDM as a 20 year old and seeing how my perspective on things evolve.

ahhhh phillip pullman, you were right about so many things about growing up.